Unrequited
by Wends
Summary: Written for the Strifehart Kink Meme on Livejournal. Prompt: Some unrequited CLC, with Cloud suffering heartbreak.


Originally posted on Livejournal for the Strifehart Kink Meme. Leave it to a person like me to fill this one. Mwahahah. Oh, and mandatory disclaimer stuff: I don't own KH or anything in the FF franchise other than merchandise that's too irresistible for me not to blow my paycheck on; I'm just an E6 in the USN, and therefore am not worth suing. Reviews, as always, are highly appreciated.

Prompt: Because I'm a meanie-face, I'd like some unrequited CLC. And I want it to be Cloud suffering heartbroken who is the unfortunate one.

Bonus points if Leon's with another guy!

_-BEGIN FIC-_

Unrequited

My feet scraped audibly over the ground as I dragged myself away from Merlin's house.

I had just made the gravest error of my life.

For so long I had been watching him, longing for him, admiring him. He was everything I could desire in a partner. Strong, steadfast, stable in times of strife. Ever since meeting him at the Coliseum I had found myself entranced, even enamored with him.

The way he looked enthralled me. Brunette hair that lightly dusted over broad shoulders, muscular frame that moved with feline grace, lean figure that was so well accentuated by the leathers he insisted on wearing made him a very delectable sight to behold. Strong hands that gripped his weapon's hilt, encased in leather, deceptively powerful yet maddeningly tender when they desired to be. Face that, despite its mark, still was something of ethereal beauty, that scar that sliced across otherwise flawless features being all that made it something bound to the realm of reality.

His soft voice, his hidden past and the mysterious emotions that would hover behind a sheen of ice that coated gunmetal eyes were what completely sealed my affections for him. His impossible strength counteracted by his gentle nature fascinated me, drawing me in with every gesture he made, every look he gave me. Even as his aloof nature repulsed me to some degree, his underlying tenderness would draw me back without fail.

Any man who can put up with Yuffie clinging to his arm day in and day out with, at worst, a bland look of complete disinterest is unbelievable, in my book.

I had wanted to dig under that icy shield he encased himself in, to find what emotions he had encased in that impenetrable coffin and sooth them. I wanted to comfort him as he had unintentionally comforted me, his strength and determination in the face of seemingly unstoppable odds giving even me the faith and motivation to continue to stand against darkness, whether external or my own. I wanted to ease the grief that would flicker to the surface of his abysmally deep storm-shaded eyes only to repress itself the moment anyone would care to look and see it swimming there.

I wanted to be the one to comfort him.

So when the strangers appeared in Radiant Garden, appearing confused and disoriented and claiming to have been brought there by the young blue-clad girl who was searching for her knight, I had brought them to Merlin's home.

If she was the girl he had once told me about, his lost Sorceress with hidden white wings, perhaps these were the friends he had lost so long ago. Perhaps these were the key to unlocking his heart from its icicle prison.

When they had arrived and the name 'Squall' was veritably squealed to the air, I had watched him to capture his reaction.

And when his eyes turned not to me with gratitude and love but rather settled on the tall auburn man with his outlandish garb and hat with those emotions I so longed to be shown to myself, I felt my heart plummet.

I swallowed every last outburst my brain was spitting, feeling my blood drain from my face and my stance become less stable than I'd thought as he'd wrapped his arms around that man, earning a sharp laugh and playful reprimand from the raven-haired girl with her innocent eyes and a replica of his ring hanging from a chain around her neck.

I made as much haste as I could to leave their company.

He'd not even noticed my abrupt departure.

As I looked at the cobblestone, my heart heavy with dread and sadness, I let my eyes close.

I had made my gravest error.

I had brought Leon the source of his happiness, and come across a stark realization-

His happiness would never be due to me.


End file.
